“Fuckers were completely feral with bloodlust. Probably smelled our stores.”
“Must have been cut off from the royal stash,” Emmanuel muses, exiting our carriage to ride beside it on his horse. He latches the door, and we’re moving a moment later, not wasting any more unnecessary exposure on this road.
“Did we know vampires were being pushed out of Goreon City or cut off?” I ask Second.
He shakes his head.
There’s no food source down here; it doesn’t make sense for them to be here. Unless—
“I wonder if they tried to leave but got stuck between a king who won’t feed them and our wall.”
“Fuck,” Second spits.
I sigh and try not to blame myself, if that’s even the true story.
Our carriages finally pause at the sleeping house, and Second and the twenty soldiers with us enter the house first while Em stands guard outside my carriage.
I wait, trying not to fidget.
Pulling a pin from my bun, I lock it between my fingers and stare at the front door of the inn, counting the minutes. Finally, Second’s form fills the doorway, and he jerks his chin.
I climb out and join him inside, Charlotte and Emmanuel behind me.
Second sheathes his sword, and I shove the pin back in my hair.
“It’s empty. I’ve secured a room for you at the end of this hall. And I’ll be sleeping on your floor.”
I smirk at the blood smeared across his face.Seems reasonable.
I see myself to our room, and Second joins moments later, squeezing through the doorframe and flinging a featherbed he filched from another room onto the floorboards.
It takes us over ten minutes to fully disarm ourselves, and just before daylight, the front door of the house slams.
My eyes dart to Second. “A visitor.”
“Indeed,” he growls and grabs his sword, edging to the door and listening.
My muscles twitch, nervous energy ricocheting as I race to my daggers.
Footsteps tread confidently down our hallway, and the door across from us opens and shuts.
Second bolts our door, slides his featherbed in front of it and plops his heavy ass against it.
“They’re going through me if they want in here,” he says, leaning back, sword across his lap.
I smirk. “You’d be more intimidating on the other side.”
“I like the element of surprise better,” he lobs back.
“Of course you do.” I glance at the door. “I don’t hear anything else, you?”
He shakes his head, ear against the door.
“I should’ve locked this place down,” he growls.
I frown. “We’re not sentencing someone to death because we happen to travel through. And you know sleeping house rules. Safe space.”
Second cocks his chin like I’ve spoken another language. “And you know how loose the rules can get here.”
